What Are Thieves?
by OnihumoExplosionsInc
Summary: When Meliodas gathers the Seven Deadly Sins, at first they all thought that Ban was the weakest of them. However, Ban, underestimated though he is, proves that he is as strong as the others. Though sometimes, skills unrelated to battle are even more of use in the trials they face.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay look, I really liked Seven Deadly Sins, and felt it was underappreciated. So I wrote this. And this story will be Ban-centric, because as the only person who doesn't yet have his Sacred Treasure, that means that when he does get it it's going to be really awesome. So, in spitballing ideas, realizing that his weapon was originally a sword, and that reincarnation is a thing in this universe, I wrote this. And yes, it is technically a crossover. But the crossover has no real bearing on the plot, so this is in the regular category.**

 **I do not own the Seven Deadly Sins, or anything else that is recognized. I'll put a citation on my profile.**

A Suspicion

Seven people who had each committed a great sin, a powerful group headed up by Sir Meliodas, The Dragon Sin of Wrath. This group consisted of a powerful mage, a man with strength enough to defeat anyone during the day, the fairy king, a giantess of great strength, and a person who could infiltrate the minds of others. The last member, though, was a thief with the powers of immortality. And sure, this man could not die, but he did not seem to be as remarkable as the others without his undying nature.

At first, that is.

When Meliodas brought in Ban the Undead, and he first began to fight with the rest as a knight of their order, most of them underestimated him. After all, he had neither lived as long as the rest of the Sins, nor did he possess the sheer strength that Escanor had to offset his lack of experience in comparison.

He could not die, though, and that gave him enough of an edge in most fights. But still, the rest of the sins could not help but feel as though Ban was weaker, and wondered why Meliodas had brought him in to the Seven Deadly Sins.

Meliodas, when questioned by Merlin or King or even sometimes Gowther, would always reply, "I think that he's pretty powerful, myself." And they would all back off for a bit until they had reason to distrust this again.

A thief, even if he is a great thief, was not necessarily a great warrior.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

It was several years before the rest of the sins realized that Ban was actually more powerful than he let on.

Sure, he was odd in some ways they couldn't quite put their fingers on. But he acted goofy quite a bit, and was always in the mood for a fight, so they didn't really look any closer. But when the group headed to the sea for a mission one day…

It was actually Gowther who commented on it first. He mentioned something about Ban's heart rate changing, and his body language shifting, and so they all turned to look.

Ban had stopped right on the ocean's edge, with his feet in the surf, and had an expression of great melancholy written all over his face. For a moment, time stood still as Ban turned his face towards the sea with an expression that could only be described as great longing on his face.

And then the expression closed itself away, and Ban became once more what they all knew him as, a bloodthirsty immortal goof that enjoyed getting drunk with his friends.

But they remembered that expression, that seemed somehow older than the Ban they all knew, so different and yet achingly the same.

It wasn't enough to get them to stop seeing him as weaker, but it would later stand out in their mind as the first time they suspected that Ban was more than just a jumped up immortal thief.

And Meliodas smiled quietly to himself, not knowing exactly what it was that Ban was hiding, but knowing that it was something that he recognized from the time when he was very young…

 **If anyone can guess who and where Ban was reincarnated from, they win bragging rights.**

 **Also, again, the past life doesn't really have any bearing on anything but the eventual final battle, and Ban's unknown Sacred Treasure.**


	2. Chapter 2

**So, it was brought to my attention that I didn't make something clear. Let me rectify that. I personally do not think that Ban is weaker than the other Sins. However, I do believe that they all thought that at first, except of course Meliodas. Part of this story is them realizing that Ban isn't as weak as they all thought.**

 **I do not own the Seven Deadly Sins, or anything else that is recognized.**

Sacred Treasure

Ban didn't use his Sacred Treasure to fight.

That was one of the first things the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins noticed about him. Instead of using the sword by his side that was a sacred weapon, he would always use nun-chucks, sometimes even setting the sheathed sword to the ground if it would get in the way of his fighting.

That did not mean that he wasn't protective over his weapon, as they all tended to be, in fact he seemed even more possessive about that sword than Meliodas was about either of his blades.

But it made no sense to any of them, because even when Ban was beaten into the ground he still didn't release the sword's power. He never even mentioned it's name, or spoke like it was even an option to use during the fight.

Merlin was curious. She knew all of the other weapons, but Ban's. And even if he was not nearly as powerful as the rest of them from his own lack of experience, Ban did have the potential to get there one day. In a couple of centuries. So she wanted to know what sort of weapon he would have.

She brought up the subject one night, "Ban, what is your sword, what does it do? I have never heard of a sacred treasure that looks like that before. And you never even use it."

And as all the rest of the Sins turned to look at Ban and Merlin, it was King who spoke up, "Yeah, why don't you use that sword?"

As they all continued talking about it, led by Merlin, only Meliodas noticed the expression on Ban's face. It was overcast, and almost in a grimace, but what really struck a chord in Meliodas… was the fact that Ban seemed terrified of something.

"Guys, if Ban doesn't want to talk about it, he doesn't have to. I trust him," Meliodas interjected with a cheerful tone. Everyone sort of collapsed, with Merlin being upset about it but respecting her captain's wishes in this. Besides, she thought, Ban didn't have the same strength as the rest of the Sins, so it probably was nothing very special.

"It's fine," Ban says very softly, "You guys should probably know why I won't want to use this sword unless we're all about to die, anyway."

Everyone gathered around the fire, as Ban put his sword across his lap. He seemed far more serious and sober than normal, looking down at the sword. It wasn't even very ornate, or special looking in the sheath, and seemed like something any random knight might have.

"If you ever see me pull this sword out of its sheath, I'd do your best to stand back," Ban started, as he tilted his head up and closed his eyes, before sighing, "I can't guarantee that I'll see you as friends, and even if I do I don't think I'll be very good at controlling myself. I don't think what would happen will be enough to kill any of you guys, but people weaker than you might end up dying."

"You would be strong enough to kill people by accident?" Merlin questioned.

"I… after all of this time, and in the midst of the type of battle where I'd have to unsheathe my sword, I would probably lose myself and my control. And I wouldn't want to hurt anyone."

And with those parting words, Ban stood up and walked away. Leaving even more questions in the heads of the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins, and a doubt that he was as weak as they had all thought.

It wouldn't be until the first time he unsheathed that sword of his, however, that they realized that they had never truly been stronger than Ban, and that he had been able to stand amongst them from the start.

 **Yeah, I can't wait until we get to the actual story line. I have something good planned for it!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yeah, this momentum probably won't last forever! Actually, I'm suprised at the rate I'm writing these, though they are very short chapters. I am trying to capture Ban and Meliodas' friendship, and we'll get there with the rest of the sins. And they had to defeat some fairly strong people before they were framed, you'll know it's getting close to the time of the story when the Sins fight an ogress. Also, who can guess what Gowther is doing for the entirety of this story? I'll reveal it next chapter.**

 **I do not own the Seven Deadly Sins, or anything else that is recognized.**

A Fearsome(?) Opponent

It was not often that the Sins ended up getting separated when a fight was about to happen, but in this instance it had happened. Gowther was nowhere to be found, and Meliodas, Escanor, and Merlin had all gone off to retrieve some powerful artifact that Merlin wanted, leaving Diane, King, and Ban all gathering supplies in a village.

Or at least, that was what was supposed to happen.

Some kind of monstrous knight had attacked, presumably to retrieve the same artifact that Merlin was after, and with only three Sins they were hard pressed to prevent him from killing the village gave them a little more breathing room after they were sent flying out of the village by the corrupted knight, but that didn't really help when Diane and King got trapped under a falling cliff-side and Ban was practically sliced in half.

And then Ban stood up, the others trapped or to far away to help, with his hand on his sacred treasures handle.

*!*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

As Merlin led the others out of the cave where the artifact was hidden, Meliodas said, "I sense a strong presence from the village that appears to be fighting Diane, King, and Ban."

"It's strong enough that they'll need backup if they don't want to risk the town," Merlin frowned, "We need to hurry, something just happened that has pinned down Diane and King."

"Can you teleport us?" Meliodas said.

She shook her head, "For this fight, I get the feeling that I may need all of the energy I can keep. We shall have to take the long way."

And with that, they set off.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

"Are you going to use that sword against me?" The monster asked, "It doesn't seem very special, especially for a knight of your supposed caliber. Though you did manage to get back up after that attack."

Ban looked up at the monstrous and corrupted form of the knight and smirked, "I don't need that sword to kill you, bringing that out wouldn't be any fun at all."

The Knight then rushed forward to impale Ban, succeeding in doing so and getting very shocked when Ban continued to speak even after he spit out blood.

"You just don't seem to get what immortality means, do you?" Ban commented with a vicious grin.

"You're nothing but a thief, everyone knows that," The knight proclaimed, "Even if you're immortal, that doesn't mean you're invincible!"

"You are right of course," Ban replied, "However, you made one very simple mistake." Ban lifted himself off of the blade, looking the corrupted knight straight in the face before flipping into the air.

"A good enough thief, can steal more than just possessions."

And with that, a rope of magic extended from the nun-chucks that he'd retrieved while distracting the knight with his sword, pulled out the heart from within the being's body. And it fell over dead just as the rest of the Sins arrived, and Diane dug herself out of the cliff-side she'd been trapped under with King after crashing into it from the strength of the corrupted knight's attack.

"Well, that was fun," Ban said as he crushed the heart from the knight under foot, "What do you say we go find a tavern to get drunk in?"

Meliodas grinned, "Race you!" And the two ran off at breakneck speed, shouting about some kind of drinking contest…

And everyone else was left mildly shocked at how Ban had easily one punched a knight that probably should have taken at least two of them to take down without collateral damage from the nearby village.

 **: Yeah, that guy had no chance against any of the Sins, but they were trying to avoid collateral damage. So, either two of them or Escanor(because this is the day time) would have had to fight him at least. And the reason no one intervened, was because they noticed Ban seemed confident and wanted to know what his plan was. So, yeah, that was how they found out that Ban can literally steal someone's heart.**

 **Also, you didn't really think that I'd reveal what happens when he draws his blade this early, do you? You're going to have to wait until after the Ten Commandments at the very least!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ban, the greatest cook in the Seven Deadly Sins makes his appearance. And, as it turns out, is entirely too smug about his cooking skill. Though, compared to the skill of everyone else, it is no surprise that he's a better cook than them. I mean, Meliodas alone...**

 **Well, anyway, I just can't stop imagining Meliodas sometimes trying to order the sins into doing things, only for them to blow him off. And it's only the mundane things, but still.**

 **I do not own the Seven Deadly Sins, or anything else that is recognized.**

A Feast Among Friends

It started after the first time they'd all defeated a great threat against the kingdom. All of the Sins were tired and hungry, and weren't looking forward to making dinner at the old house they'd set up in during their time tracking down the threat through a marshy bog(they chose that house because part of the roof and a wall had been knocked down so Diane could still see them easily). Especially since none of them could really cook anything more that spit roasted meat with raw vegetable. Meliodas wasn't even allowed to cook his food was so terrible, and none of them had been willing to risk letting Ban loose to cook for them.

He'd probably end up serving them up raw hearts stolen from various woodland animals, or something equally gruesome(Yeah, that whole, 'I can steal the hearts of my enemies,' thing was still at the forefront of their minds. It made some of the smarter Sins wonder what else he could steal… ).

So, they just resigned themselves to going to bed hungry and hoping that it would be easier to make food in the morning.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

It started with a sizzle, and a delicious smell. Roasted meat, vegetables, and potatoes, bread and eggs, and some kind of juice to go with it. As the sun began to rise they all one by one began to wake up, lured into consciousness by the smell of something that didn't smell barely edible.

As they all got up and headed into the room with the ancient kitchen/living room(the one that was open to the elements), confused as to what the source of that heavenly aroma could possibly be, the stopped short as soon as they got into the room.

A half naked Ban(because somehow his shirt had gotten destroyed in the fight again) was standing over a large makeshift fire-pit in the center of the room, cooking what appeared to be a veritable feast(Though, it was probably just enough food when you factored in the sheer size of Diane).

"Geeze, you'd think none of you guys had ever seen a decent meal before," Ban smirked proudly, "You're all lucky I managed to find a decent sized bear this morning, or I wouldn't have even bothered."

"Why would you even need a bear," King wondered.

Ban shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not going to cook unless I have enough to feed everyone, you know? So that's for Diane."

He pointed over to the side, where there was a massive roasted piece of meat(pretty much the entire bear), and said, "And the stuff that got caught in the snares I set before our fight is for the rest of us. So, dig in."

Then Ban loaded up his plate and sat on one of the makeshift chairs the Sins had appropriated a few days ago, eating with gusto.

When everyone else grabbed their food and began eating, they all had exactly the same thought, 'This is the best thing I have ever eaten.'

"That's it!" Meliodas shouted after they had all finished scarfing down the food, "Ban's the new cook for the Seven Deadly Sins, Captain's orders!"

"Naw," Ban yawned, "I only cook when I feel like it."

"I'm shocked," Merlin said, "You'd rather eat our terrible food than cook?"

"Who said anything about eating your nasty food," Ban replied as he stretched, "I just go out and find something better."

"Steal it, you mean," King muttered.

He shrugged, "Later. I'm going to go appropriate some new threads." And with that Ban wandered off at top speed. They all stared for a moment, before Escanor realized,

"Oh dear, he's left us with all of the cleaning up to do."

 **: So, when I say that Ban remembers a past incarnation of himself, they are not the same people. They have some of the same core personality traits, but they are still separate people who have separate experiences. Mostly, this is just because I want to put someone who could destroy the Ten Commandments without even really trying, but who would also respect the fact that they are a separate entity now and avoid interfering with Ban. So this is mostly Ban, who has the most awesome guardian angel on his shoulder teaching him a few things on occasion. (Does this count as a hint? With what I've mentioned about the sword, can anyone figure it out this early? I wonder...)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Arm wrestling competition! Yeah!**

 **But, um, I really have gotten into the whole Seven Deadly Sins anime, and am currently working on the manga. And by that I mean, I have another separate story in the works, and will probably post that soon. My apologies to anyone who was looking forward to updates on other things, I haven't abandoned anything yet, but I can literally not find it in me to write anything other than this right now.**

 **I do not own the Seven Deadly Sins, or anything else that is recognized.**

Arm Wrestling

It all started in a bar. Because of course it did. Whenever there was a free night, you could guarantee that Ban and Meliodas would be there, and most of the time one or more of the rest of the Sins followed.

This particular trip to the bar, however, was different than all of the ones before it. In fact, years later, five members of the Sins would still look back and curse the existence of this bar simply because of the ongoing… greeting it would cause.

At this particular bar, when Ban and Meliodas sat down to acquire drinks, the bartender noticed them and smiled.

"Are you guys here for the arm wrestling competition?" He asked cheerfully as brought them two tankards of ale.

"Arm wrestling?" Meliodas asked, "Sure, sounds like fun! You'll join too, right, Ban? Even though you'll definitely lose."

"What are you talking about, Captain? You're the one that's going down!"

And the two left to go sign up and join the competitors.

"Now you've done it," the night form of Escanor sighed, "I suppose I'd better go and tell Lady Merlin so that she can make sure that none of this will get out of hand. And I was so looking forward trying that new ale that this place came out with."

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

In the end, every Sin except for Diane showed up, though Diane really wanted to watch. Mostly this was for… damage control(though King only came so that he could watch Ban get pounded by the Captain, because it was a forgone conclusion that Meliodas would easily win).

It was, however, the bad luck of everyone else in the competition that Ban and Meliodas were on opposite ends of the bracket. Or, put simply, they would face each other at the end of the competition after easily crushing everyone else.

And so, leaving easily defeated and utterly humiliated people in their wake, Meliodas and Ban got ready to face each other. They sat across from each other and gripped hands, eyes narrowing on their opponent.

The now frightened bartender, who was only hoping that this whole thing won't end in a fight, says, "On the count of three…"

Grips tighten.

"One… "

Meliodas' lips pull into a light smirk.

"Two… "

Ban grins suddenly wider and with a vicious cast.

"Three!"

BANG!

A cloud of dust filled the room momentarily, clearing after a few long seconds spent in silence. A gasp ran through the Sins, because through the carnage of a destroyed table and a small crater in the ground, it was obvious that the Captain had lost.

"Well now," Merlin mused, "this is certainly a surprise."

A moment later though, laughter rang out from the two competitors.

"Man, Ban, I sure wasn't expecting that! How did you manage it?" Meliodas wondered through his laughter as Ban held a hand out towards him to help him up.

"It's all about speed, explosive force, and technique," Ban replied, "You were actually pretty difficult to defeat both because you're really strong and you're so much smaller than me. Probably the first time being so tiny has ever given you an advantage, Captain!"

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

And if that was the end of it, then they'd just all remember it as the time Ban defeated the Captain in a contest, but it wasn't.

Oh, how it wasn't.

See, Meliodas became determined to defeat Ban in arm wrestling. So determined, in fact, that every single time the two saw each other, Meliodas would challenge Ban to a match. Ban, after agreeing the first few times, soon got kind of bored with it, leading to the Captain trying to capture his hand and force Ban into arm wrestling with him.

This led to regular slap matches that soon turned into super powered high fives before Ban would agree just so that Meliodas would stop. It all came to a head though, when one day out of frustration Ban hit Meliodas. Meliodas' head only turned, but his return attack flung Ban through a nearby wall.

Ban still won that competition.

But not long after that, the whole thing seemed to gain a different edge. They stopped doing it all the time, and began using it as a greeting only when they hadn't seen each other for more than a day.

And when asked about it, Ban and Meliodas only high fived each other before Ban said, "He finally won one."

 **:Yeah, this was only an origin story to their magnificent greeting. Honestly, those two... But seriously, it had to happen at some point.**


End file.
